All about Mary: Wentworth Greenhouses honors employee

Tuesday

Oct 29, 2013 at 3:15 AM

ROLLINSFORD -- Customers love Mary Corbett so much her boss is prepared to pay her just to come in and greet people on her day off, this Friday.

“Even if she just wants to come here and sit, I would want her to come in,” said Bryan Wentworth, whose family runs Wentworth Greenhouse and Garden Center. “I wouldn’t ask her to do her usual running around, but I would pay her.”

To give you an idea of Corbett’s popularity, she’s always the employee that gets the chocolates, soaps and other gifts from customers.

“And we just get the scraps,” laughed fellow employee Annie Brown of Rollinsford.

But none of the other workers at the third generation garden center begrudges Corbett her plunder. After all, Corbett is a big part of what makes it fun to come to work each day.

“She’s just fun to be around,” said Brown. “ You come to work just to see Mary, and customers come just to visit her.”

Nor do they begrudge her the fact that this is Mary Week at Wentworth Greenhouses, a week when employees as much as customers will celebrate one of those people who makes life that much more worth living.

In honor of Corbett’s 25 years working for Wentworth, the greenhouse sent out an email inviting customers to “visit Mary next week.” Customers, community members, pretty much anyone who wants is invited to come by and see Corbett - and get 25 percent off houseplants and pottery between 8 am and 5 pm Monday to Thursday.

But then, thought Wentworth, it might be worth having her just sitting there on Friday.

Besides the fact that she is willing to take on any job to help a customer or employee load a bag of mulch or repot a plant, and besides the fact that she is extremely knowledgeable about plants and can pass on that knowledge in ways everyone can understand, Corbett is apparently funny.

“She’s always doing something goofy,” said Wentworth. “She’s so silly you have to meet her to get it.”

One day Corbett came in with her shirt on backwards. Another day she was caught dancing in the aisles. And most days she begins by singing a good morning song.

A resident of Somersworth, Corbett is thrilled with the event. Generally not too shy, she loves the idea of celebrating her quarter decade working in a job she actually loves.

“Plant people are just nice people,” she said, “and the Wentworths are like a second family to me.”

When Corbett, now 55, started working at the garden center 25 years ago, it was a different place. Bryan, who runs the place with his brother Mark and cousin John, was still in college and Corbett was one of the few employees working alongside Bryan’s dad, mom, aunt and uncle. The center was less than half the size, and Corbett often she worked alone. The business did not accept credit cards and she remembers trying to figure out how to use the wooden crank phone that was used as an intercom.

Now, the center has grown so big she jokes that she sometimes wishes her employers would provide a motorized wheelchair to get around. And like a teacher watching her students grow up, she sees shoppers pushing strollers whose mothers once pushed them in strollers. Bryan’s father David, now in his 80, still walks across the street every day to visit, but he leaves day-to- day operations to the next generation.

Corbett especially loves that the staff is made up of people she really likes -- “plant people,” who are not into dressing fancy or creating drama at work. In fact, on her days off, you can often find her back at the center just to visit. Last weekend she and her grandkids were out shopping for wild-colored duct tape when she suggested, “why don’t we just stop by and say “hi.” So they did.

And come time for the annual holiday open house Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, Corbett and her three grandkids are likely to be among the first to get on line with a toy donation, or hoping for a picture with Santa.

Truth be told, Corbett’s second favorite thing about work is the customers. She claims “We don’t have any grouchy customers,” which is a rare claim in retail. And she credits her customers with teaching her to hug more than trees.

“I really wasn’t a big hugger before but my customers taught me to hug,” she said. “It’s nice to come home at the end of the day and say I got 10 hugs today.”

The love affair is mutual. Many customers treat Corbett as a BFF.

When regulars received the email about celebrating Mary, one customer emailed back, “I am so there; I love Mary.” Another said “We LOVE Mary!! Congratulations to you, Mary! “

Judy Wood, a customer from South Berwick, first met Corbett years ago when planning her daughter’s wedding. Corbett was so dedicated to making the wedding right, Wood has been a bosom buddy ever since.

“Mary is so knowledgeable but mostly she is just SO very pleasant and helpful,” Wood said.

In the end, Corbett admits, it is the plants themselves she loves the most. Sometimes she slips off to look at the young flora in the seven acres of greenhouses. Last week she went down to photograph thousands of adolescent poinsettias.

They were fat and bushy and just beginning to blush, she reported. She feels certain this year will bring a good batch.

“Potting and playing with the plants, that is my favorite,” Corbett said. “I can’t imagine working anywhere else and it’s sure nice to love your work.”